The Subaru is our steed to Oshkosh this year and it needs a 2m ham rig installed ... finally after owning the sucker for about 15 years. I don't like drilling holes but will do so if pressed. I also would prefer something where I wouldn't have to rip out half the interior panels to run the coax up to the glove box.
Anybody got a cleverness for me?
Jim
Mine has a Diamond or similar “gutter” mount clamped on to the roof rack just forward of the hatchback far enough that opening the hatch won’t hit the antenna.
The mount included tiny coax which isn’t great for loss numbers at VHF/UHF but isn’t awful either. I think it’s RG-174 or equivalent? That gets the cable inside easily by just running it through the hatchback with a tie off to the top of the gas strut or whatever mechanical stuff is up there so it doesn’t move around. Inside the vehicle it adapts to better coax.
The rig is an FT-847D mounted under the passenger seat. Head is removed and attached to a flexible “stalk” thing that bolts right on to a seat hold down bolt and comes up between the passenger seat far front and the center console and then is bent over and angled to aim at me.
The roof rack mount works fine for VHF and UHF as a “ground plane” (probably a bit directional but not much) and didn’t really need a better ground plane setup, but HF obviously isn’t as “happy” without some proper body bonding, so a thin crimp-on large ring terminal is under each of the antennas around the threads of the NMO mounts, soldered to small tinned copper braid and that is run down inside the hatch and attached to a body screw with paint removed under it. Radio is also bonded to the car frame under the pax seat with braid.
Another reason for those ground rings on the bottom of the antenna NMO mount is to make the gutter mounts work there’s a little sheet of scrap black rubber wrapped around the roof rack. Kept from scratching up the rack but also completely isolated the mount from the car body, so that had to be remedied.
Of course you know this but an antenna that doesn’t need as good a ground plane works nicer on that NMO mount on the roof rack than something like a quarter wave. A big multi trap co-linear is a monster performer on there but get the heavy duty mount or the ratchets for adjustment will strip under highway wind load at 75(+). 5/8s trap dual bander also works well. Well enough for FM work anyway.
Frankly the car is so old, the next time the expensive Diamond mount strips, it’s 3/4” hole-saw or metal punch time and the roof is getting holes. I didn’t do this particular install, dad did before he passed. I’d have drilled holes. Never had a single problem ever with a properly drilled and paint cleaned hole and a properly installed NMO mount. Not leakage wise, not RF behavior wise, no problems. Other mounts over the years have given good to horrible service depending on various factors.
But looking at his goals... no holes, no marks, two mounts, one on each side, one for VHF/UHF and one for an ATAS HF screwdriver, and the radio under the seat with a control head always accessible to the driver’s seat, and even a single-ear Heil headset and hand PTT for him, it was a perfect little setup.
The ATAS got damaged. The control head mount has all the screws worked loose (he should have locktite’d them) and the rig has a weird PLL lock problem now when it’s cold, so I really need to rip the whole thing out and start over. Haven’t had much interest in years though.
The folding tower is still laying in the back yard with all the antennas awaiting a hole and concrete and a lot of work. Thinking about just selling it all.
Looks similar but with a lot more gain than my winning Rover setup years ago. You don’t want to know how much money is in that antenna stack.
Those are probably all M-squared antennas. That’s easily a couple thousand bucks right there just in antennas. Not including feedline and all the radios for it.
Probably $5K or so worth of contesting gear on and in that vehicle.
